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Formerly called Advancing Automation, this ebook series includes sponsored and curated articles from a variety of experts on the latest in smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0 topics, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Although few engineers now hesitate to use wireless for monitoring purposes, wireless valve control has not enjoyed such success.

Products are becoming commodities in the fast-moving new global business environment. To succeed, businesses need a competitive differentiator – a proprietary edge which can only be developed through innovation, knowledge and experience.

Counterfeit electrical products are a growing problem that can have serious consequences. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports fiscal year 2008 seizures totaled more than $272.7 million in counterfeit and pirated goods, a 38 percent increase in domestic value over fiscal year 2007. In the category of Top Safety and Security Commodities for fiscal year 2009, electrical products moved from 5th to 2nd position just behind pharmaceuticals.

Network marketing is a distribution system, or form of marketing, which channels goods or services from the manufacturer to the consumer through a "network" of independent distributors or consultants.

The world of HAL and Data, of sentient machines, is fast approaching. Indeed, in some ways it has already arrived as humanlike machines increasingly take on the work of humans. As processing power increases exponentially, and as MEMS technology brings smaller and smarter sensors and actuators, robots are the breeding ground for future-generation products with new, varied and exciting applications.

Today, ETO manufacturers, as opposed to repetitive manufacturers, are required to use technology to stay one step ahead of foreign competition.

Buhler, a provider of grain milling solutions, standardized on Softing’s industry-hardened S7/S5 OPC Server to provide reliable connectivity between Buhler’s “WinCoS.r2” automation system and multiple S7-400 PLC’s

The reason to use derivative (or D) is that you can use more Proportional and especially more Integral action. The result can be a much faster reacting control loop.

Otto Mation is moving to the new Automation.com website! As we enhance our site, Otto still wants you to enhance his comics with your captions. If your caption is selected as the winner, we will send you a newly-designed Automation.com & Otto Mation mug.

Dr. Godart is known for developing high-performance teams and applying groundbreaking technologies to improve business productivity and sustainability. He comes to OSI well equipped to provide strong strategic leadership to the company’s industrial energy management business unit.

The Gecko Single Pad (SP) gripper brings the same capability to automation applications with small footprints and lower payload. The Gecko SP is available in three sizes; SP1, SP3 and SP5 named after the gripper’s payload in kilos, featuring ability to lift a range of flat, smooth, shiny or perforated surfaces

Designed specifically for industrial and/or highly-corrosive environments, TAC and THP products operate on 208/230 VAC, single phase 50 and 60 Hz power sources, depending on size.

The solution consists of embedded hardware and supporting software framework, which can be further customized to suit the requirement of an embedded product or an IoT solution under test.

The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) announced the release of the open architecture gigabit (GB) CC-Link IE Field Network. I recently met with two members of CLPA Americas to get an update on the latest CC-Link IE standard.

The two main ways to implement secure remote access are with a hosted VPN and with a traditional VPN.A hosted VPN works well in most applications and is much simpler to implement and support.t

Suggested industrial applications for XP Embedded include human-machine interface (HMI) panels, process automation systems, industrial robots, inspection systems, Soft programmable logic controllers (Soft PLCs), remote control devices and factory monitoring systems. Accordingly, many Advantech systems are compatible with XP Embedded. A few of the many possible consumer and commercial applications of XP Embedded would include set top boxes and terminals such as kiosks and ATMs.

Over the years, corrosion evaluation tools have been developed to help the corrosion engineer do his or her job more efficiently. In the end, these tools gave the corrosion expert a high level of data for determination of corrosion but the data was only useful to the specialist, not the facility operator or control systems engineer – that is, until now. Finally, corrosion monitoring technology is available that can be easily implemented into standard control room architecture.

Traditional compressor monitoring has focused on velocity vibration and rod drop. Hardy provides two additional measurement techniques, Impact and Triangulated Rod Drop, that were developed especially for reciprocating compressors.

The vast majority of encoder users have a solid understanding of the type of encoder they need to accomplish their objective. What they don’t always know, at least without painful experience, are the major factors that need to be considered when specifying, installing, and interfacing with the encoders they select for their machine. This article will address those issues, primarily as they relate to rotary incremental optical encoders, though most of the concepts that follow apply to several encoder types.